Sequential color display systems, such as display systems utilizing digital micromirror devices (DMDs), deformable micromirrors, transmissive and reflective liquid crystal, liquid crystal on silicon, and so forth, microdisplays, typically time-multiplex different colors across a given video/graphics frame. Each color of light can be modulated by the microdisplay and then displayed onto a display plane. The human eye can integrate the modulated color sequences that are displayed on the display plane into an image.
A traditional sequential color display system, such as a single chip DMD-based projection display system, can use a color filter to produce a color sequence from a wideband light source, such as an electric arc lamp. A common prior art color filter used in single chip DMD-based projection displays systems is a rotating color wheel containing a number of color segments, with the duration of each color in the color sequence being dependent on the size of the respective color segment. An example of a projection display system with a color wheel is described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,192,946, entitled “Digitized Color Video Display System,” granted Mar. 9, 1993, which U.S. patent is incorporated herein by reference. The duration that a particular color is being generated can also be referred to as the display duration. Generally, because the display duration of a color in the color sequence is dependent on the size of the respective color segment, the display duration of the color is fixed.
It is possible to change the display duration of a color in the color sequence by changing the speed of rotation of the color wheel. For example, to shorten the display duration of a color, the color wheel can be rotated at a faster rate, while to lengthen the display duration of a color, the color wheel can be rotated at a slower rate. However, changing the speed of rotation changes the display duration for all colors and individual color display durations cannot be changed without similarly affecting the display duration of other colors. Furthermore, since the color wheel is a physical device, the ordering of the colors in the color sequence is also fixed.